Featured Author: Candace Meredith

Candace Meredith earned her Bachelor of Science degree in English Creative Writing from Frostburg State University in the spring of 2008. Her works of poetry, photography and fiction have appeared in literary journals Bittersweet, Backbone Mountain Review, Anthology 17, Greensilk Journal, Saltfront and The Broadkill Review. She currently works as a Freelance Editor for an online publishing company and has earned her Master of Science degree in Integrated Marketing and Communications (IMC) from West Virginia University.

She was born on the eve of the Winter Solstice. Her first day of life was the shortest day and the longest night. Upon her birth, her mother noted a birthmark on her wrist; the pale flesh bore two overlapping crescents with a staff running down the center splitting them into two equal sides. Her first evening alone in her crib a shadow of a large man cast over her peering into her face only inches away as her mother opened the door feeling the temperature in the room drop to cold; the mere shadow of a man-like silhouette retreated through the window, his hands at his side – he was only torso and arms – his body disappeared into a stream-like fog. As her mother leaned over the rail she saw that her infant’s eyes were charcoal black – her pupils dilated so that no deep brown color remained in them. Suddenly her baby burst forth in a golden fire; from slits in her back the wings of a golden Phoenix grew six feet on each side. Her infant grew into a full grown woman with long locks of auburn hair; she stood six feet tall emanating in ethereal light – the outside shimmering in a prism of thousands of shades – colors unseen by her before; on the inside she appeared hollow of the deepest, darkest black as if the depths of her span the bottomless pit of an expansive ocean. She opened her arms to her mother and began to speak: I am Helga, Queen overseer of the light and Goddess of Celestial Light. In this body I am no longer your daughter but mother to all. It is your duty as you have been chosen to care for the infant that bares the mark of protection. And I am the Prince of Peace an inner voice says – Helga’s inner soul and the representation of her fears, her deepest desires and her sorrow, jealousy, obsession and anger. Together we represent the dualism that is the human personality gained through experience and the human condition.

Then the face of a man morphed into view; he had a gaunt face with high cheek bones, pointed at the chin with hazy gray eyes and thickly, arched brows who spoke: I am master of the dark night, he said, and retreated from view as another face morphed into view who had an attractive human face – the face of the Prince of Peace.

With those words Helga retreated back to infancy with her mother standing over her – her hand upon her chest, gasping slightly. The child she calls Alysiah Elizabeth Harp lays on her back in the crib – a smile upon her newborn’s face and her deep brown eyes looking radiant with a glint of light peering in her pupil; as the light diminishes her smile fades and she begins to cry, and her mother’s duty has begun.